Yankees avoid sweep with 3-1 win over Red Sox

Joe Girardi doesn't regularly challenge the Yankees publicly with must-win proclamations, but perhaps he should do so more often.

Faced with the continued unraveling of the team's season – and more specifically, a series sweep at the hands of rival Boston – Masahiro Tanaka and the Yanks backed up Girardi's plea the previous day for an immediate turnaround with a sharp 3-1 win over the Red Sox on Sunday night at the Stadium.

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"I think it was a must-win for us today," Carlos Beltran said. "This home stand is important overall for us, and I think it will dictate what the future holds for a lot of guys here."

With losses in the first two games out of the All-Star break, with AL East-leading Baltimore coming to the Bronx on Monday and MLB-leading San Francisco to follow on the weekend — and with many clamoring for Yankee brass to be sellers at the Aug. 1 non-waivers trade deadline — Girardi essentially had labeled the series finale a must-win for his middling club (45-46).

"It's got to turn around (Sunday)," Girardi had said following Saturday's 5-2 defeat. "This is probably as important a game that we've had in July in a long time."

Didi Gregorius slides in safely to tie the game as the Yankees answer Joe Girardi's call to turn things around with a win. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

Tanaka answered the call and blanked the Sox following Dustin Pedroia's first-inning homer, allowing just one run on three hits with seven strikeouts (87 pitches) before handing a two-run lead to the Yanks' vaunted bullpen in the seventh.

"I thought it was really important by Masahiro," Girardi said. "I thought he gave us everything he had and aired it out in the sixth inning. It's an important game and we have those big three guys down there for a reason."

Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller didn't see any action in losses in the first two games of the series, but the All-Star setup duo provided a six-out bridge to closer Aroldis Chapman, who worked the ninth for his 18th save.

The Yanks were without starting first baseman Mark Teixeira, who fouled a ball off of his left foot on Saturday, although his latest test results were favorable. Initial X-rays showed no broken bones, and a CT-scan administered before the game also came back negative.

Starlin Castro celebrates in the dugout after scoring the go-ahead run in the fourth inning. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

Still, the pending free agent is batting just .186 for the season with seven home runs over 226 at-bats. He and Alex Rodriguez combined for 64 home runs and 165 RBI in 2015, but they've totaled just 15 and 48 in those categories so far this year.

"It's difficult because you need that big bat in the middle," Girardi said before the game. "(Beltran) has provided one of them, but last year we had four of them. Mac (Brian McCann) has hit his home runs (14), but the other two guys have struggled. So it hurts."

Pedroia smoked a 2-1 offering from Tanaka (7-2, 3.15) into the left-field seats with one down in the first for a quick 1-0 Boston lead.

The Yanks followed by stranding two runners in the bottom half to mark their 21st consecutive game in which they failed to score in the opening frame, the most for the franchise since a 22-game streak in 1967, according to ESPN.

Masahiro Tanaka pitches six sharp innings, allowing just one run while allowing just three hits and striking out seven. (Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News)

From the second through the sixth innings, the Red Sox (51-39) managed only two hits against Tanaka, who notced successive strikeouts of David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez and Jackie Bradley Jr. in the fourth. Brock Holt doubled with two outs one inning later the fifth, but Tanaka escaped the frame by fanning Mookie Betts for the third out.

The Yanks, who had hammered Price for 12 earned runs over consecutive starts in May, got to the former Cy Young winner for three runs on five hits in the fourth. Starlin Castro stroked an RBI double to left for a 1-1 game, and Austin Romine and Jacoby Ellsbury added run-scoring singles in the inning.

"I think it was a big win, number one," Tanaka said through a translator. "We came in and lost two in a row after the All-Star break…I think everybody understood how important that we needed to win today."